High traffic loads fill today's roads and highways with a wide variety of vehicle types. Maintaining vehicle safety on these roads is of paramount importance. Two particular problems in maintaining safety is the size differentials among the wide variety of vehicle types and the poor visibility drivers experience due to the inherent design of the larger vehicles. Motorcycles and passenger vehicles are much smaller than the trucks that use the same roads. Large trucks have significant blind spots in which they cannot see other vehicles. Attempts have been made to educate the public on the NO-ZONE of blinds spots around a large truck. Regardless, accidents often occur during the operation of large trucks on rural and urban roads. Providing large trucks with collision warning systems has the potential of greatly reducing accidents, injuries, and deaths.
Sonar Safety Systems of Santa Fe Springs, Calif. has a rear-mounted ultrasonic sensor system that detects objects behind the vehicle while backing up. Objects are detected within three distance zones from the rear of the vehicle. When an object is detected in one of the zones, audible and visual feedback is provided to the driver. The detection zones generally cover areas within ten (10) feet of the rear of the vehicle. This system is limited in that it is designed for single chassis vehicles up to and including commercial straight trucks. It requires the processing unit and display to be inside the cab of the vehicle. It does not address the needs of combination tractor trailer rigs and does not provide any side collision warning capability.
Transportation Safety Technologies of Indianapolis, Ind. has an ultrasonic sensor system that is designed to incorporate up to seven sensors to monitor the areas on the sides and rear of a vehicle. In the case of a combination tractor trailer rig, it can monitor the sides of a tractor, the sides of trailers, and the rear of a trailer. Driver feedback is provided through a Driver Alert Module located in the cab of the vehicle. This system has limitations in that it is limited to a maximum of seven sensors and the tractor and trailer both need to be equipped with the Transportation Safety Technologies product. If the tractor is so equipped and the trailer is not, the system is limited to monitor the blind spots on the sides of the tractor with no protection around the trailer. If the trailer is equipped with this system and the tractor is not, the trailer sensors are useless since they rely on the Driver Alert Module in the tractor of the combination tractor-trailer rig. In this case there is no collision warning detection at all.
The combination tractor-trailer rig presents a unique set of problems not previously addressed by manufacturers of collision warning systems. These problems include the following: (a) previous collision warning systems required electronic devices and feedback mechanisms to be installed on or in the tractor, (b) the company that provides the tractor is often different from the company that owns the trailer, (c) there are three times as many trailers in the marketplace as there are tractors, and (d) one tractor may pull many different trailers during the course of a day, week, month, or year. In cases where a tractor is equipped with a collision warning system, in most cases that tractor is not pulling a trailer equipped with a collision warning system. In cases where a trailer fleet owner is interested in implementing collision warning on their trailers, they can't be assured that the independent owner-operators that they hire to pull the company's trailers will be using tractors equipped with a collision warning system.
Trailers are equipped with brake lights to warn vehicles traveling in close proximity behind the trailer that the trailer is slowing down. However, truck drivers often use the engine and transmission to slow down the vehicle without activation of the brakes. This takes away the benefits of brake lights as a visual warning for drivers of other vehicles. A means is needed to warn drivers of other vehicles that the trailer is slowing down.
Tandem trailers (i.e. two trailers pulled behind a single tractor) also present a unique set of problems. To-date there has not been a collision warning solution for tandem-trailers. A trailer-based collision warning system needs to address this unique set of needs.
Since the rear of trailers, and to a lesser extent the sides of the trailer, present a major blind spot to the driver, improvements in combination tractor-trailer safety will be limited unless a means is found to provide automatic hazard detection and collision warning on the trailer independent of the tractor pulling the trailer and to provide a means of communicating visual alarms, audible alarms, and video information to the driver.
Another trailer issue that requires attention is the theft of goods and the hijacking of trailers. A means is needed to detect unauthorized access to a trailer and unauthorized access to fluids stored in tankers. In addition there is a need to detect hijacking of trailers. In addition to the need to detect these security violations there needs to be a means of scaring away the thieves and/or providing an alert to police or the trailer fleet owner.